Alan Johnston, from Rochdale, presented Mr Royle with the award at Manchester’s Magical Society, The Order of the Magi, which is England’s third oldest magical society.

Mr Royle’s award winning routine at The New Irish Heritage Centre in Manchester, started with the amazing production of a four-foot-long sweeping brush from nowhere, a heavy bowling ball appearing from an empty bag and even a bowling pin being produced from an impossibly small package. He then made a bottle of whiskey disappear, before he produced a bottle of wine out of thin air whilst teaching the audience how to recite the alphabet backwards.

Mr Royle, 41, was born into a showbiz family and made his stage debut aged three as Flap the Clown at Gandey’s Travelling Circus.